Sadistic Charlie Chaplin’s Obsession with Teen Girls & His Cruelty
Chaplin had 2,000 lovers but he didn’t like women.
Charlie Chaplin was loved for his slapstick comedy, and little do people know how he made the lives of his teenage wives a live comedy. He treated them with relentless cruelty.
Chaplin portrayed Hitler, a tyrannical dictator, in a 1940 film. Apart from the similarity of ridiculous facial hair with Hitler, Chaplin shares much of history’s unappreciated personality traits — like cruelty.
He is known for not trusting women because he feared abandonment and loss — such trust issues were reflected in the slightest provocation.
Sadly these women bore Chaplin’s cruelty, as some of them gave birth to his children. They became prey to his selfish, dominating and cruel personality. Let’s dig into this face of his life:
Chaplin’s early life & rise to fame
Chaplin was born 16 April 1889–25 December 1977) to a mentally unstable mother and deadbeat father in a poor family — his stories of rags to riches are pretty popular.
Transitioning from a clog dance, a role in which he spent his entire childhood, to a comedy learner made him rise to the most famous man in the world by 26. He learned comedy from the British comedian Fred Karno.
His struggling background earned him the luxury of getting a considerable Hollywood salary. His success touched heights — as a result, despite being only 5’5 inches, the guy allegedly slept with about 2000 women, according to a rough estimation.
Chaplin would discard his partners at will. Vanity fair, in 1926, reported Chaplin’s statement about his ideal woman. He described the woman in his life as, ‘I am not exactly in love with her, but she is entirely in love with me.’
Out of thousands, five women marked their name in the history of Chaplin’s romantic life, where the first one was Edna Purviance — but she was not his wife.
Edna Purviance: Chaplin’s first girlfriend
One of the first women to experience Chaplin’s selfishness was a 19-year-old actress, Edna Purviance, whom Chaplin hired from an ad placement in Chronicle.
“Wanted — the prettiest girl in California to take part in a moving picture.”
The pair became more than costars, but Chaplin’s work overshadowed their relation such that he would not write to her; as a result, she started seeing another man.
Mildred Harris and a false alarm
Next time, he had an affair with a younger starlet, a 16-year-old Mildred Harris. She soon informed Chaplin about her pregnancy. Getting spooked, he arranged marriage in October 1918 at the local registrar’s house.
Interestingly, it was a false alarm as Mildred had misread her symptoms. Regretting his decision, Chaplin blamed Harris for bamboozling into marriage.
Labeling her an embarrassing and bad actress, Chaplin would leave her alone at home for days. Indeed, he gave Mildred the facilities like servants, credit and chauffeur but nothing of himself.
The fact that Chaplin did not love her made marriage worse. After actually becoming pregnant with Chaplin’s child, Harris had a nervous breakdown. Owing to Chaplin’s mistreatment, she was hospitalized for three weeks while carrying Chaplin’s child.
Chaplin’s frequent affairs made Mildred’s mental health worse. Soon she gave birth to his son, but he owned malformed intestines; thus, he died three days later. After this incident, Charlie moved out of the house, taking up a permanent residence at LA athletic club.
In 1920, Mildred Chaplin filed a divorce, citing his cruelty. During the case, she published her sufferings in marriage:
He said he had to be free to live his own life and do as he pleased. He was short-tempered, impatient and treated me like a cretin,’ she protested.
The couple had a bitter divorce, granting Mildred $100,000 together with a share of Chaplin’s property.
Lita Grey: The woman with the largest divorce settlement in history
The same year, he met Lillita MacMurray, famously known as Lita Grey, a 12-year-old girl he started admiring. At 16, Lita played a supporting role in Chaplin’s 1924 film the gold rush. Sadly, she too became pregnant out of wedlock.
Suggesting an abortion gave Chaplin nothing but a rejection by Lita’s catholic mother. His last suggestion was to get her married to a willing young man, with a dowry of $20,000 — another way out that Lita rejected.
To avoid the prospect of domestic responsibility, scandal and criminal charges of getting intimate with a minor, Chaplin secretly married her in November 1924.
They had a secret ceremony in Mexico, quickly after which he left her to go fishing. From the first day of marriage, he made his perception about her clear and called her a “little whore”.
On their train back to California, Chaplin suggested Lita jump off the train to end her misery. Interestingly, Chaplin didn’t like his wife but still, according to Lita, he remained a “human sex machine.”
When Lita announced she was pregnant the second time, his behavior became even more erratic. Chaplin would take up eight showers in a day and monitor the listening devices he had installed in her bedroom, and patrol their house’s grounds with a pistol at night.
By the end of the same year, Lita headed for the divorce, stating how Chaplin pulled a gun at her and threatened abortion.
Lita’s more elaborated passages surfaced where she claimed how throughout the marriage life, Chaplin demanded her to gratify his ‘abnormal, unnatural, perverted and degenerate sexual desires’. He would force her by stating, you are my wife, and you have to do what I want you to do.’
The case did not end here, as Lita’s lawyers threatened to reveal the names of six actresses who Chaplin slept with after marriage.
A hasty settlement was reached, as some of the actresses were married themselves. Lita was given $625,000, with a $200,000 trust fund for their two sons — the most extensive sum given as a divorce settlement in American history.
Paulette Goddard and Chaplin’s bullying
Chaplin’s reputation was bruised by this time. His hair had turned completely white, and he had learned a lesson: not to tangle with teenage girls. Thus next on Chaplin’s list was a 22-year-old actress, Paulette Goddard.
He began dating her in 1932; history doesn’t have a record of the year they married. She moved into his mansion and got cast as a leading actress in Modern Times.
Charlie bullied her on sets, a primary reason for their separation. On the first day of the shooting, she reported that he was not satisfied with her. So, he took off her shoes, changed her suit, and removed all the makeup before finally throwing a bucket full of water on her.
He would control her on set, telling people how he had to teach her things about acting. His remarks would leave her all crying.
After Chaplin made his most controversial movie with her, The Great Dictator, their relationship seemed deteriorating. Instead of enduring the bullying on the sets, she left him in 1940.
There are rumors Goddard’s relationship with Chaplin cost her one of the most prestigious roles in film history; Scarlet O’Hara in Gone With the Wind. Gone With the Wind’s producer David O. Selznick passed on Goddard because she was living with Chaplin. Vivian Leigh got the part and the Academy Award for Best Actress.
Oona O’Neill: Chaplin’s last partner
By then, Charlie was 51. He’d made a complete mess of his romantic life so far — and, for all his fame and fortune, there seemed little prospect of him ever finding true love.
By 51, Chaplin had made a mess of his romantic life. But he didn’t lose hope. Amidst criticism, Chaplin in 1943 wedded another much younger woman, Oona, the daughter of Irish playwright Eugene O’Neill’s.
Oona’s family disowned her for she had a 35 year age gap with a scandalized figure. Interestingly their marriage remained until Chaplin’s death.
It wouldn’t be an entirely accurate assessment to state that he turned from a womanizer to a wholesome husband because according to Jane Scovell’s Oona: Living in the Shadows, the heroine Joan Collins stated how O’Neill stated Onna “catered” to her fatherly husband with “an almost geisha like deference.”
As far as Chaplin’s treatment towards his children is concerned, according to Marlon Brando’s autobiography, he treated his children with cruelty, humiliating them in front of the entire set. His son Sydney from Lita Grey told Brando how Chaplin would treat all his children the same: with cruelty.
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References:
https://www.charliechaplin.com/en/articles/220-Charlie-Chaplin-s-Wives